The Ultimate Guide to Pasta and Sauce

The dried pasta options at the store can be bewildering. Do you want corkscrews, stovepipes, or little ears tonight? Perhaps a big dish of priest stranglers—that’d be strozzapreti in Italian. There are reasons that pasta exists in so many forms. It’s partly regional (Italian cities big and small always seem to have a specialty pasta), but it’s also practical: Certain pastas are best eaten with certain sauces. Others work well with a wide variety of sauces—the workhorse pastas, like farfalle.

The general rule is that delicate noodles are for delicate sauces while heartier noodles are for heartier sauces, but similar to wine pairing, it’s not always that simple. So here’s a guide to help you sort it all out. And if you can’t tell your radiatore from your penne, we’ve got pictures. Of course, if this is too much pasta structure for you, we won’t snitch if your gemelli ends up in a seafood sauce.

We’ve cross-referenced this chart by pasta or by sauce and included some suggestions for specific recipes you can try.

These “tiny fingers” are a classic choice for soups like pasta e fagioli, although they are a great choice for soaking up cheese and sauce in bakes, too. Check out our recipe for Pasta e Fagioli with ditalini.

Named for their ridged lines, rigatoni are most commonly found in Sicily. These guys are sturdy enough to take on thicker and chunkier sauces. Check out our recipe for Creamy Rigatoni with Chicken and Mushrooms.

Ziti are tubular and short like penne, but lack the ridges and have a square cut. They’re best known as an element in pasta bakes, although they also match up perfectly well with a range of sauces. Check out our recipe for Baked Ziti with Prosciutto.

Match the smaller pastas with recipes using finely chopped ingredients, such as this salad with zucchini and pine nuts in which you can substitute pasta for the couscous. The larger pastas will hold up well with recipes that call for coarsely chopped ingredients, such as the pasta salad pictured above: Anelli/Anellini, Campanelle, Cavatelli, Cavaturi, Conchiglie, Ditalini, Farfalle, Fusilli, Fusilli col Buco, Fusilli Napoletani, Gemelli, Macaroni, Orecchiette, Orzo, Penne Rigate, Riccioli, Rotelle, Rotini, Ziti

All photos by Chris Rochelle / CHOW.This post was originally published by the CHOW Editorial Team on May 12, 2008.

Miki Kawasaki is a New York City–based food writer and graduate of Boston University’s program in Gastronomy. Few things excite her more than a well-crafted sandwich or expertly spiced curry. If you ever run into her at a dinner party, make sure to hit her up for a few pieces of oddball culinary trivia.